With Omicron surging and new research suggesting boosters may provide only temporary protection, let’s hope Santa’s elves are cooking up new jabs.

(Originally published Dec. 24 in “What in the World“) Omicron is now the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the United States, driving infections there above the peak this fall caused by the Delta strain and sending the rate of Covid-related deaths upward. Fear of the virus’ lastest strain is already curtailing U.S. consumers and businesses, dampening the economy.

With only about one in five Americans protected by a booster shot of the vaccines, new research from the United Kingdom suggests that the protection from infection afforded by a booster may last for only for about 2.5 months. And as previously noted, vaccines themselves do little against Omicron but prevent severe illness.

Australia is responding by shortening the time between vaccination and making boosters available to its adults to just four months. That implies that anyone who was vaccinated before late-August ought to be seeking out a booster—and possibly another by mid-March. Clearly herd immunity is a pipe dream if vaccines can offer only such short-term protection. We need new vaccines tailored for Omicron and need them before the predicted mid-January surge.